


Skull and Crossbones

by SonglordsBug



Series: Skull and Crossbones [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Darcy Lewis, Darcyland (Marvel), Gen, Hydra (Marvel), SHIELD Agent Darcy Lewis, darcy adopts herself a pirate crew
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-09-30 05:55:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 4,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17218265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonglordsBug/pseuds/SonglordsBug
Summary: After the destruction in DC, Hydra gets their hands on Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis. It's not as satisfying as they expect. Instead Darcy collects her very own misfit crew of pirates.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> crossposted from stumblr

Darcy did her best to hide how carefully she was paying attention to her surroundings as she was half shoved into a dormitory, reminding herself that Darcy Lewis was not trained to have excellent situational awareness and was just a college student and intern who talked a lot and who definitely didn’t understand how Hydra operated. She scanned the dorm with artfully wide, surprised eyes, noting among other things that the sleeping quarters were mixed gender and had enough sturdy cots for between thirty and fifty people. She silently cursed Thor again for being occupied somewhere far away today.

Then she turned to her escort and babbled “Woah, woah, woah, Jane can’t sleep here! Like, I know you need her to do the science, but she doesn’t do that so well when she doesn’t sleep. And the bosslady can’t sleep in a place like this! There’s too many people!”

The Hydra agent, who had had to tolerate several hours in a car with Darcy Lewis’ inane chatter, sneered at her and said “Doctor Foster has been escorted to her new laboratory. She has private quarters adjoined to it. You will be sleeping here.”

Darcy let understanding dawn on her face as she said “Ohhh. Okay, I get it.” She looked around the room again, nodding. “I mean, I’ve definitely slept in nicer places, but it’s fine. So I sleep here and then I go join Jane in the lab during the day, right?” Darcy turned an inquisitive gaze onto the agent.

“No.” The agent looked pleased to be correcting her. “Doctor Foster will be assigned new assistants, ones with actual scientific knowledge. There is no reason for you to interact with Doctor Foster again.”

Completely unsurprised, Darcy let shock and confusion spread across her face as she mentally reviewed her last few minutes with Jane, after she’d found that Hydra was minutes away.

_“Jane, do you trust me?” She’d asked seriously._

_“What? Darcy of course I do, why are you asking?” Jane had asked frazzled and confused._

_“Look, people are coming, they’re bad guys and they’re gonna tell you I’m one too. They’re gonna take you away and they’ll try to convince you you shouldn’t trust me. But I swear I’m going to get you out of there. I promise. I need you to trust me, okay?” Darcy had tried to explain._

_Jane had stared at her in astonishment, before nodding and saying “Okay. I trust you.”_

_Darcy nodded and then grabbed Jane’s thin shoulders. “They want your science. I need you to play along. I don’t think they’ll actually be able to understand it, so you should be able to make things up. Just please make it look real.”_

_Jane had nodded, eyes wide and concerned, and then Hydra had burst in._

“But… if I’m not keeping an eye on Jane and helping her, then what am I supposed to do here?” Darcy asked, letting her voice waver.

“That’s up to you, though I recommend you find a way to make yourself useful.” The Hydra agent sneered. “I suggest you start by finding yourself an empty bed.”

Then he turned and left, shutting the door in her face.


	2. Chapter 2

Darcy turned and let her eyes go wide again as she scanned the room, this time putting a wrinkle between her eyebrows and slipping her lip between her teeth. She noted several empty beds and that most of the beds were claimed in a subtle enough fashion that Darcy Lewis wouldn’t pick up on it. She kept looking as she tried to pick a target.

There.

There was an unclaimed bed. Two beds farther along that row was a huge, bald, thug of a man, but the important part was that he showed no interest in his surroundings. And three rows over was a fierce and wild looking woman with a buzzcut who looked ready to fight anyone who gave her trouble.

Darcy made her way over and plopped down on a bed.

The woman looked over with a scowl and snapped “There’s someone sleeping there, you can’t have that one!”

Darcy bounced up and babbled “Oh! Wow! Really? Whoops!”

Then she plopped down on another nearby bed.

“Not that one either, girl!” The woman snapped.

“Oh really? Jeeze, I’m sorry!” Darcy stammered, bouncing up again.

Darcy started to plop herself down on another bed, causing the woman to growl “Look-”

“That one.” The man interrupted, pointing to Darcy’s selected bed. “That one’s empty.”

Darcy beamed at him and bounced over to it, gushing “Oh Gosh! Thanks so much! You’re a real life saver, you know that?”

The man glared at her until she shut up. She sprawled on the cot, wiggling and squirming in a show of getting comfortable.

Then she exclaimed “Man, what’s a girl got to do to get some food around here? I’m staaaarving!”

“Shut up!” The woman snarled, looking homicidal.

“What? I haven’t eaten in ages.” Darcy said looking over at the woman with a carefully startled face.

“You missed dinner.”

Darcy let her head whip around to the man again.

He looked pained by her energy and exuberance as he repeated “You missed dinner. They won’t serve food again until the morning.”

Darcy let her head flop down onto her mattress, letting out a whine “Aww man!”

“You should sleep.” The man said, before turning his back on her.

Having settled her place and her personality, Darcy let herself look around the room curiously. There were clearly two tracks for Hydra grunts, she thought. Her eyes passed over several grunts who were busily working on equipment and electronics. The minions. Her eyes also skimmed over other grunts who were battered and resting or cleaning weapons. The cannon fodder. There was no doubt in her mind which she needed to become to survive, the problem was, to be a minion you needed someone to minion for, and that meant getting herself noticed.

She ran her mind over her cover, trying to figure out what skills Darcy Lewis had that might come in handy. If they were interested in her scientist wrangling or her data-crunching, they’d have let her stay with Jane. And if they were interested in poli-sci they wouldn’t be Hydra. She had half a Master’s thesis written on that, thank god she hadn’t gotten around to filing the appropriate paperwork before they’d approached her. What  more did a poli-sci college student and astrophysics intern have to offer? Darcy Lewis was just a girl from New York with an older brother in the military.

Well, there was that, her cover did claim that her brother James and his friend Frank had taught her how to fight. But it would be a pain, she’d have to actively hide the skills she had that couldn’t be explained by their teaching. Did she have anything else besides what ‘James’ and 'Frank’ had taught her?

Frank. Of course. Darcy almost smiled as she remembered setting up that profile, and the whining that ensued when they took marksmanship statistics and lowered them, changing them from 'never misses’ to 'rarely misses’. It would be easy enough to say that her brother’s friend had taught her a few things. And then show surprising skill on the gun range.

Darcy nodded mentally and let herself relax down into the mattress. It was time to sleep. Tomorrow she’d get herself some attention. As she relaxed and started drifting she could almost hear a firm but gentle voice murmur

“Good job, I’m proud of you.”

It was matched to a smile that showed more in the crinkles around soft blue eyes than on thin lips. Darcy flinched away from the memory-image, and if that flinch took her away from memories of a more boisterous grin and a wicked smirk? Well, it was time to sleep anyway. Instead she wrapped herself in a calm, slightly nasal voice that told her to

“Control your mind, control your body.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Are you fucking joking?” Darcy demanded, gaping.

The Hydra agent in charge of the shooting range glared.

“But really? Really?” She asked in disbelief.

“No Level Ones or Twos on the range without a pass from a Level Three or higher.” The range master stated again, his glare intensifying.

“Great.” Darcy muttered.

“I just wanted to practice!” She continued with a whine, shooting the agent a pleading look.

He scowled. Her mind raced. She’d clearly miscalculated, she had to get noticed before she could show off shooting skills. She ran over her possibilities and settled for second best. Hand to hand would have to do… as long as…

“What about the gym? Are we allowed to use that?” Darcy asked a little desperately.

“Yes.” The agent answered.

“Without a pass?” She double checked.

“Yes.” The agent bit out, looking increasingly annoyed.

“Can you point me to the nearest gym?” Darcy asked hopefully.

Something in the agent’s face shifted, he looked almost smug.

“Down that hall. Take a right two corridors over. Four doors down.” The agent told her, definitely looking pleased with himself.

Darcy almost stayed to stare at him and try to figure out what had caused the change but decided not to push her luck.

“Thanks!” She chirped, flashing the man a cheerful smile and turning with a bounce to follow his directions.

As soon as she was sure he couldn’t see it, she let the smile fade. This was great. Just another setback in an increasing string of them. It felt like nothing had gone right since… well, since. She fumed as she made her way to the gym, pausing in the entrance for a quick scan. It was empty. That was something at least. She made her way over to the supply area and grabbed some wraps for her hands. Then she headed over to a punching bag.

Thunk!

Life had been a constant stream of disappointments, discouragements, and outright heartbreak for the last two years.

Thunk!

First her stupid brother got his stupid self killed during the disaster that had been Loki.

Thunk!

And then Clint got sent away on mission after mission right after that so that the WSC couldn’t scapegoat him.

Thunk!

And Tasha went to DC to babysit Cap.

Thunk!

And then Darcy got to deal with her own alien invasion.

Thunk!

And Shield hadn’t even responded to her calls, let alone helped.

Thunk!

No, they just sent some team to pick up the pieces afterward.

Thunk!

And then goddamn Hydra was real.

Thunk!

And approached her to spy on Jane, with the only other option being a bullet to the brain.

Thunk! And when she tried to contact Nick about it, she got silence.

Thunk!

Though at this point she was pretty sure he was dead.

Thunk!

He had to have died at some point in the last few days.

Thunk!

While Captain America was destroying Shield.

Thunk!

And Hydra was rising from its ashes.

Thunk!

And now this, when she’d been trying so hard to keep Jane safe.

Thunk!

Darcy was so caught up in her thoughts that while she observed that a group had entered the gym, she didn’t really notice. That is, until someone right behind her snarled

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Darcy stopped the bag from swinging and spun around snarling “The fuck does it look like?”

Then stopped as she came face to face with the group. It was composed of a number of large, muscled, men and women. They had all clearly spent time in the field fighting. And there was something about them, about the way they stood clustered in a pack, the way they looked at her as though they were hunters and she was a snack. She recognized some of them from Strike Team agent profiles.

"Working out?” She offered.

“Noooo, this is our gym.” Said another of them.

“I don’t see your name on it.” She snapped, and then barely kept from blinking in surprise as she realized her mouth was getting away from her.

“Who the fuck are you?” A third asked.

“Darcy Lewis?” She offered.

“Go.” Said a fourth.

“No! I haven’t finished working out!” She cried, a small part of her wondering despairingly what she was doing.

The pack shifted, looking at her.

“You want a workout girlie?” One asked. “How about you spar with one of us then?”

The small, sane, part of her whimpered. The rest of her opened her eyes excitedly and pasted on a beaming grin.

“Awesome! I could totally use the practice!” She gushed.

They gestured her over to a nearby mat with smirks on their faces. She bounced over, considering frantically how best to hide her skill level without getting killed, part of her wondering if it was even possible.

The next interminable hour and a half went by as she slipped and slid, stumbled and tumbled, around the mat. She managed to turn most of the potentially deadly blows into glancing hits that only bruised. She also got in just enough strikes of her own to show that she had some training.

She finally made her way to the showers, aware that she was only walking away because they were toying with her.


	4. Chapter 4

Darcy stood dully under the shower. Exhaustion had dulled her anger, leaving her on the verge of tears. The facts were that she’d lost her family and her home. At this point she wasn’t even sure whether any of the people she called family were alive. And even if she could leave Hydra, she didn’t have anywhere to go.

She stood there for a moment longer before briskly rubbing her hands over her face and reaching for the shampoo. If she was going to get Jane out she didn’t have the time or the energy to waste on moping. She could figure where to go after she got them away. And to do that she was going to have to build on the attention she’d earned herself from Strike Team Alpha.

She finished showering and headed out of the gym, waving and smiling cheerfully at any of the agents who looked at her. She decided to go looking for internet access on the off chance that she could get in touch with someone.

The next morning Darcy woke with a pained groan. She hissed as she got up and changed. She was sore. She hobbled her way out of the dorm towards an outdoor area she’d found yesterday after learning that Level Ones and Twos also had limited internet access. Once outside she worked her way through stretches and a run until she was moving with something resembling her usual ease.

Then she went back inside to catch the tail end of breakfast before heading back to the gym. The small sane part of her mind wondered why she didn’t find a different gym. The Strike Team had gotten there first this time and one of them looked over when Darcy entered.

“Hey! The mouthy little shit is back!” She yelled.

The rest of them looked back and another yelled “Fuck off, Shrimpy!”

Darcy beamed at them and crowed “Nicknames? I get nicknames? Awesome!”

Then she made her way over to an empty area and started doing some exercises.

After a while one of them called with a smirk “Kid, you’re not gonna get anywhere beating on the air. You gotta spar.”

Darcy smiled and asked with excitement layered over her voice “Oh yeah? Which of you’s gonna beat me up today?”

She saw a few startled looks and her smugness at surprising them by calling it what it was. She made it through another hour or two of sparring before bowing out and wandering off to explore the base.

Her life fell into a pattern for the next several weeks. Wake up and deal with stiffness before breakfast. Get beat up in the Alpha Team gym after breakfast. Explore the base after lunch.


	5. Chapter 5

One day Team Alpha was joined by another member. Darcy noticed the man with the heavy scarring absently as she turned from her punching bag to respond to the “Fuck off, Shrimpy!” that one of the agents yelled.

“Aww, I know you guys love me! You’d miss me if I didn’t come!” Darcy yelled back.

She carefully catalogued the new guy’s face and started flipping through Strike Team files for a match, but other than that she ignored him. There were several grumbles about her being a mouthy little shit, but since there was no heat to them, she wasn’t worried. She’d earned several nicknames over the past few weeks, the kindest of which were ‘Shrimpy’ and 'mouthy little shit’. She continued to hit the punching bag until one of the agents called her over to a mat.

“Oh, is it your turn to beat me up today?” She asked gleefully of the massive agent. “Jeeze, beefcake, didn’t your mama teach to pick on people your own size? Though I guess there aren’t very many of those available, huh?”

The agent in question glowered and lunged at her. Darcy yelped and fell over, conveniently avoiding the hit. She continued to scramble and stumble around the mat as usual. When the agent finally decided she’d had enough she let herself collapse next to the map, gasping for breath.

The newcomer came over and said “Not bad kid, what’s your name?”

Darcy blinked at him in surprise, that was the first compliment she’d ever heard from this gang of thugs, and stammered out “Thanks! I’m Darcy Lewis.”

Then, as though she hadn’t identified him when he came into the gym she asked “And who’re you?”

“He’s Crossbones, Shrimpy.” One of the team told her grinning wickedly. “You can tell cause he’s got an X on his face.”

The newcomer rolled his eyes and bumped the other with his shoulder before saying “Brock Rumlow.”

“Nice to meetcha!” Darcy said with a smile, then continued “Now if you’ll excuse me, I smell, so I'ma hit the showers.”

Rumlow nodded his acceptance and left her alone.

Darcy was thoughtful during her shower. Rumlow had responded very differently to her than the rest of Team Alpha. She might have just found the attention she needed, as long as she cultivated it right.

Rumlow made eye contact as she made her way out of the gym. She gave him the same cheerful smile and wave that she gave every other member of the team that interacted with her when she left.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day Darcy was sparring with another member of Team Alpha when Rumlow called out “Keep your left up.”

She brought her left arm up and blocked a blow.

A few minutes later he called out “Widen your stance.”

She followed his instructions just in time to stay on her feet for the next blow. Darcy began to inconsistently incorporate his suggestions into her fight. She made sure to occasionally forget them and then remember all of a sudden. She was incredibly grateful to have an excuse not to make those mistakes all the time. After her spar she made her way over to him.

She smiled hugely and said “Thanks so  much for the tips! They really helped me a lot!”

Then she ducked her head and smiled sheepishly, looking up through her eyelashes, saying “Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.”

Rumlow smiled a little and opened his mouth to say something when she interrupted to say “I should go shower.”

Then she spun around and ran off to the showers.

The day after that she was only about fifteen minutes into her daily pummeling when Rumlow called out “That’s enough. Come here kid. Let’s see about actually teaching you some stuff, so that big mouth of yours doesn’t get you killed.”

Darcy made herself look uncertainly at her sparring partner, who shrugged and turned away. Darcy stared after her for a moment before turning and making her way hesitantly over to where Rumlow was sitting on a bench.

He gestured her to stand in front of him and said lazily “All right kid, show me what you’ve got.”

She set herself in the fighting stance she’d been using the last few weeks, with her feet a little farther apart than usual, and starting throwing careful punches into the air. Rumlow watched her thoughtfully for a couple of minutes before he started making suggestions. A few minutes later he got up and started physically adjusting her. They worked together for a good forty minutes before he called a break and sat back down.

He smiled at her and said “You’ve got pretty good form, kid. Where’d you learn?”

Darcy smiled, took a swig of water, and answered “My brother and his, uh, friend, were in the army.”

Rumlow nodded thoughtfully and said “That’s why things looked familiar. They big guys?”

Darcy smiled wryly and said “Bigger ‘n me!”

He snorted and teased “Like that’s hard!”

She cocked her head at him and asked “Does it matter?”

“Size changes how you fight. A big guy, like me, I hit hard, but maybe not so fast. Someone small like you can’t hit as hard, but is usually faster. I can teach how to take advantage of what you have.” He said, giving her a calculating glance.

“Ohhh.” Darcy answered. Then she frowned. “Are you saying they didn’t teach me right?”

“I’m saying maybe they didn’t know the things that suited you best.” Rumlow said pacifyingly. “And it’s been a while since they taught you, hasn’t it?”

Darcy nodded and said “Yeah, a few years.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Big brother wanted to make sure I could take care of myself before I went to college.” Darcy explained.

Rumlow nodded and asked “Where’s he posted?”

Darcy shook her head and he asked “He’s home then?”

Darcy snorted unhappily and said “Yeah, James made it home in a box.”

Rumlow winced and looked at her sympathetically. Darcy looked away and didn’t look back till she had a grip on her emotions.

“Least I still have Frank.” She said with a weak smile.

“Frank?” Rumlow asked.

“James’ friend. He’s a sniper. Taught me how to use a gun, actually.” Darcy explained.

Rumlow nodded his understanding.

Darcy darted a glance at him and said in a wheedling tone “You know, I tried to go to the range to practice… but the guy in charge said I needed a pass from a higher up…”

Rumlow chuckled.

“We’ll see kid. Let’s make sure you know how to throw a punch properly first.” He said, looking at her in amusement.

Darcy shrugged easily, looking unconcerned and hiding the flash of disappointment. Not long after that Rumlow ended their break and they worked together for another hour or so before he sent her off to shower.

Her life took on a new routine after that, mostly centered around when Rumlow was willing to train her. She still got up and ran first thing in the mornings, but now that she wasn’t being beaten to a pulp everyday, that was less for working out stiffness and more to bring her endurance back up to her pre-civilian levels. At the gym she ‘learned’ from Rumlow, and found herself enjoying talking to him. After lunch she started tagging along to whatever Team Alpha activities Rumlow let her, since she’d already explored all of the base she had access to.

She observed the team carefully, putting together what she already knew about their various fighting abilities with their other activities. It wasn’t hard to figure out that they were enhanced. Their reflexes were just too fast, and they were just a little too strong, and they healed way too fast.

Darcy was more interested in the way they had formed a hierarchy, one that shifted day to day depending on who was more healthy or less out of control. She could see that before his injury Rumlow had been solidly at the top, but that he was currently a good bit lower, and that there were three jockeying for position.

She also paid close attention to their losses of control. Whatever the enhancement was, it had added to their base instincts.

She was fascinated by their alternate method of communication via touch. She was slowly piecing together the general meanings of various bumps and shoves. Admittedly this was used mostly for emotional communication, but it added handy insight to whatever they were talking about.


	8. Chapter 8

One day Darcy dropped down onto the bench Rumlow was sitting on for a breather. He side-eyed her and she pulled a face at him and panted exaggeratedly. He snorted his amusement and turned his attention to the rest of the gym. His amusement fades as he sees the rest of Team Alpha converging to the center mat.

They start with just some casual bumps, but quickly start shoving, and soon descend into full contact brawling. While they do it lightheartedly and it could be called roughhousing, there’s an element of competition and challenge to it that pushes them to struggle. Rumlow watched them get going for a couple of minutes, scowling slightly. Then his nostrils flared and he pushed himself to his feet and made his way over to join his fellows.

For the next fifteen to twenty minutes the group rolled around on the mat while Darcy watched this common occurrence thoughtfully. When it’s over, Rumlow returns slowly and carefully drops back down onto the bench with a smothered sound of pain.

Darcy frowns and asks “If it makes your injuries flare up and hurts you, why do join in when they get rough?”

Rumlow doesn’t answer, just scowls and looks away.

Darcy considers it for the rest of the day, comparing it with everything she’s observed. The next day, when she drops onto the bench to rest, she settles herself closer to him. Close enough that their thighs brush and she can lean into him. Rumlow stiffens and looks at her in confusion. Darcy meets his eyes then flicks her glance around the gym to all the places where members of Team Alpha are bumping up against each other. She doesn’t say anything, she just leans into him a little more. Rumlow slowly relaxes and leans into her in return.

After that it was like a barrier had come down, and as the next few days passed they began to touch more. They casually brushed against each other, leaned into each other quietly, and Rumlow started to reach out and physically adjust her stance.


	9. Chapter 9

Darcy sits alone at meals. Team Alpha may tolerate her in the gym, but that doesn’t mean they welcome her. Not cool enough to sit with the cool kids, she muses over her lunch. And she hasn’t really made any other potential friends, so she sits alone.

Suddenly there is a ruckus. Darcy looks over and her eyes catch on some poor unhinged fellow who is ranting and raving and gesturing with a knife. Great, another one’s cracked, she thinks to herself. She keeps an eye on him as she starts to finish her meal in a hurry.

This turns out to be a good thing, as his eyes suddenly lock on her and with a bellow he rushes towards her. She falls off the bench she’s sitting on to avoid his first swing. She rolls and twists to get her feet under her and tries to back away from the crazy. He doesn’t let her, instead following and swinging at her again.

In the end, she disarms him with several well placed blows taught to her by Rumlow, and then, when that doesn’t stop him, manages a desperate lunge that results in the knife being lodged in his chest. He gurgles and collapses, leaving her standing over him, breathing hard and shaking slightly.

She feels someone coming up behind her and flinches around to see Rumlow, who stops and waits for her to recognize him.

“Come on.” He says, and gently guides her out of the cafeteria and to quiet room.

She sits and shakes. It had been such a waste. The poor man had cracked under the pressure exerted by Hydra. At home, at Shield, they would have had psychs all over him way before this point, and if he had somehow gotten to this point, there would have been sedatives. Instead… well… he was dead and his death was on her shoulders.


End file.
